Quick Note: I stole the idea for using a Site Meter page for post fodder from AD. I’m not even going to pretend I didn’t. Then again, he’s still up on me in the idea lifting department. Which is OK with me because we bounce ideas off of each other all the time. He’s my brother from another mother, or one of them at least. On to the post.

Apparently Google puts my blog near the top of the of the search results when someone queries for retirement.

I’m totally with you, whoever you are. I’m also over work. Unfortunately I’m not over eating, having a place to live, a car to drive, and stuff like that. I expect I’ll have to work several more years before I can afford to retire. Even when I retire from EMS, I don’t expect to stop working all together. That’s a different mission, though. Finding a second career after EMS. I’d like to find something that allows me to utilize the skills and education I’ve spent more than a couple of years developing.

Just one that doesn’t involve getting up at O-Dark-Thirty, missing family stuff because I couldn’t get the day off, and most importantly carrying people that are younger and healthier than I am down flights of stairs. Since we don’t do returns, carrying those people UP stairs is something I do very infrequently. Different story, though.

The truth is I like being a paramedic, despite all of the day to day BS. However, I also know that I can’t do this forever. I assisted another crew with a call today and as I lifted the stretcher to load the patient into the ambulance I could feel my much abused lower back muscles telling me that I don’t have that many lifts left in me. In talking to a former co-worker who became a police officer and then a fire fighter, he pointed out that while all three professions have their dangers, the primary one in EMS is day to day wear and tear on the body. It accumulates and eventually reaches a point where some body part gives out. Shoulders, back, knees, ankles, elbows, and even hips get abused to the point where they stop working properly.

I think that’s part of why so many people go into EMS and then leave to do other things after a relatively short period of time. One’s body can take only so many years of long shifts, hard work, low pay, worse benefits, and all the other things that go into being in EMS. Even nursing, which has similar injury patterns, isn’t as body punishing as EMS. What amazes me is that I work with so many people that have been with this same service for 20, 25, or 30 years. ,

So, while I might be over work, I’m not sure I’ll ever be over EMS. Not that it matters because I am still too young to retire.